http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-council24may24,1,2792806.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Council eyes torture hearing
Aldermen plan prosecutor inquiry about police probeBy Dan Mihalopoulos
Tribune staff reporter
May 24, 2007
A majority of the City Council backed a new proposal Wednesday for public hearings where aldermen would question the authors of last year's controversial report on police torture.
In the report released in July 2006, two special prosecutors concluded that former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge tortured criminal suspects over two decades. But prosecutors Edward Egan and Robert Boyle angered some aldermen by concluding that Burge could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
Critics also say Egan and Boyle were overly deferential when they interviewed Mayor Richard Daley, who was Cook County state's attorney at the time of the cases.
Twenty-six of 50 aldermen signed their names to the resolution calling for hearings.
"That's up to them," Daley said. "They can look into anything they want."
Daley has said he would never have allowed abuse to continue if he had been aware of it. And he said Wednesday he has nothing to fear from hearings on the topic.
"I was not the mayor or [police] superintendent during all of that time," said Daley, who as state's attorney was the county's top prosecutor.
The chief sponsor of the resolution, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th), said some aldermen previously sought hearings but were blocked. She re-introduced the ordinance at Wednesday's meeting because it was the first session of the new council.
Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), chairman of the council's Police and Fire Committee and a staunch Daley ally, said he would not attempt to block hearings from taking place in his committee.
"I can't make [Egan and Boyle] come, but I will call for a hearing," Carothers said.
Egan and Boyle did not return calls seeking comment. Egan, a former judge and prosecutor, and Boyle, also a former prosecutor, were appointed in 2002 to investigate long-standing allegations against Burge.
They alleged in their report that Burge coerced dozens of confessions with fists, kicks, radiator burns, guns to the mouth, bags over the head and electric shock to the genitals. Burge, who was fired in 1993, has denied wrongdoing.
The four-year, $6.2 million investigation said little about Daley and blamed former Police Supt. Richard Brzeczek for failing to properly investigate the allegations about Burge and detectives under his command. Brzeczek sent Daley a letter in 1982 seeking directions on how to deal with abuse allegations.
Daley has said he does not recall the letter. But a federal judge in February ordered Daley to answer questions under oath about whether he or others permitted Chicago police to physically abuse suspects in the 1980s.
The special prosecutors "threw [Daley] 16-inch softballs" when they interviewed him, said G. Flint Taylor, an attorney for alleged victims of police torture.
Preckwinkle said she and other aldermen are "very anxious to hear from the special [prosecutors] about their methods of investigation and their findings."
dmihalopoulos@tribune.com
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
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